In 2016, consumers spent $41 billion on mobile games, surpassing PC and consoles as the largest game segment. Individually, mobile gamers spend an average of $87 per year on in-app purchases and up to $550 annually on top grossing games, like Game of War: Fire Age.

How are game publishers able to keep customers so engaged? In Iterable’s 2017 User Engagement Top 100 Report, we analyzed the push messaging strategies adopted by the top 100 freemium iOS games in the U.S. (as ranked by the Apple App Store) to study how they communicate with their customers.

We note how and when pushes were sent, as well as how push strategy varied by game genre. For the purpose of this study, each game was categorized as either Puzzle, Simulation, Sports/Arcade, or RPG.

Here are the key takeaways about the push notification s…